Sophie+Krawczyk


 * SUMMARY: On April 22, 1920, 28-year-old homemaker Sophia Krawczyk died in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated by midwife Mary Simkus.**

Many physicians and midwives plied their trade as abortionists in early 20th century Chicago. On February 19, 1920, one of those midwives, 40-year-old Mary Simkus, perpetrated an abortion on 28-year-old homemaker Sophia Sunday Krawczyk in the Krawczyk home.

After the abortion, Sophie took ill. Eventually she was taken to Cook County Hospital, where she died from sepsis on April 22.

Simka was indicted for Sophie's death, but for reasons I have been unable to determine the case never went to trial.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1920s].

 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

 Source: [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]



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